ROLE
2-week independent research and design
AWARD
Honorable Mention in the 2019 Creative Communication Award
Introduction
The era of fully autonomous vehicles is coming soon. Research by Brad Plumer has shown that “self-driving cars could free up an enormous amount of room on the street”. With this trend, how should we use on-street parking space through the transition into an era of autonomous vehicles when way less on-street parking is needed?
Streets in the future should embrace many paths to success, they should invite people to explore their own perspectives, they should have good impacts on people and communities. To explore the huge opportunity of diverse usage on street, I decided to design a platform, Spacing, for people to rent affordable on-street parking space and turn it into pop-up, art display, good cause, speech, performance, brand activation, community outreach, and many other brilliant ideas.
A brief background about parklets
What is a parklet?
The term “parklet” originated in San Francisco. A parklet is a sidewalk extension that provides more space and amenities for people using the street. Usually parklets are installed on on-street parking lanes and use several parking spaces. (1)
Who builds and owns a parklet?
Everyone could invest to build a parklet and become a parklet host.
Business owners invest to build parklets next to their shops in order to attract more customers and visitors.
Non-profit organizations invest to build parklets as means to create positive impacts on people and communities.
Benefits of parklets
According to the research and analysis data from City Lab, I summed up some of parklets’ existing benefits to the neighborhoods and the surrounding business:
Envisioning the great potential of parklet rental
Spacing, the parklet rental platform, could promote a valuable and resilient transition to an era of automation, when less on-street parking lanes are needed, more space could be used for diverse, creative, profitable activities.
This slightly futuristic project explores a more diverse and active street form that brings people together, promotes economic vitality, and builds vibrant neighborhoods.
To further discuss the topic and validate the idea of parklet rental, I reached out to Anna Muessig, urban planner and associate at Gehl Studio, who is specialized in creative placemaking. Here’s the promising answer I got from her, which could lead to deeper and broader conversations among many professions.
Research, findings, insights
The research and design of Spacing is based on the presumption that the platform has good collaboration with local business and has invested in parklet establishment and maintenance.
Comparing parklet rental to existing activity/event venue rental, it has competitive opportunities in these areas:
Parklets can easily attract a lot of public attention.
Parklets are affordable - potentially more than 10 times less than traditional venue rental.
Connection to right adjacent business will bring benefits to many stakeholders (renters, business owners, and community members).
Parklets are professionally, creatively, and flexibly designed by (landscape) architects.
User interview
The interview was a valuable mutual education. I taught people about the concept of parklet rental and learned about their needs and concerns. In general, people are excited about the idea and would love to see more activities and stories happen on the streets.
Potential renters
Local artist (has experience holding a small art exhibition):
“I really need an affordable place to advertise my work. I did rent a small gallery space to show my paintings last year. The location was not very desirable... Turned out only some of my family and friends showed up.”
Improv comedian (student at the University of Washington):
“Wouldn’t it be great to have an improv show on the Ave on a Friday night? We can corporate with the coffee shop! Do something like ‘Grab some coffee, grab some fun’.”
Business owners (current/potential parklet hosts)
Local cafe owner (current parklet host):
“This parklet has brought me more customers. Now people have an outdoor option. It’s good to see people chilling, having a good time outside - makes this place a lot more welcoming.”
Local gift shop owner (potential parklet host):
“It would be awesome if the parklet event could attract more visitors to my store. At least it’ll be better having a parklet in front of our store instead of just cars out there.”
Personas
The two personas were inspired by my research and user interviews. The persona images were generated by Bitmoji.
The design
I created paper and digitalized prototypes to rapidly test and evaluate the design.
The main focus of this project is to help users (renters) successfully rent parklets and hold events. Besides that, Spacing also helps people become parklet hosts so they can post their parklets on the platform for leasing. In addition, people could explore parklet events in their cities on the platform. The user flow chart and prototype could give you an overview of the product.
For renters (project main focus)
Spacing is a parklet rental platform for people to test brilliant ideas and host events (both commercial and non-profit).
Renters can use the helpful information and tools provided by Spacing to find parklets with right location and adjacent business for their different needs in hosting events.
For hosts
Spacing helps business and property owners build parklets and become parklet hosts.
For explorers
Spacing is also a website for people to explore parklet events around them.
1. Input location and event type
Let’s find a parklet for an art display in Seattle! There are many event inspirations on the homepage for you to explore.
2. Find a suitable parklet
My user testing showed that many potential renters don’t have an exact date and time in mind for holding their events. They would like to get more options and inspirations on Spacing and then decide when and where to hold the events. So the search outcome provides a better recall ratio.
Additionally, you can apply 5 filters to get relevant search outcome. The filters are made informative and flexible so that you could get informed, inspired, and get satisfaction from decision-making.
3. Explore more about the selected parklet
Sam’s Tavern Parklet seems to be a good match. By selecting it, you are navigated to the parklet info page where you can get detailed and useful information to make better decision. Some innovative information and features provided by Spacing are:
The design translates the useful information into the user-friendly interface:
4. Make a reservation
On the reservation page, Spacing asks for more information about the event for proper censorship and better service. Spacing will also create a digital poster for the event based on the information input and will send you the poster via e-mail after the host confirms the reservation.
Style guide
Reflection
Spacing is a challenging project because “parklet” is still a new concept for many people. In addition, the project involves many stakeholders: the renters, the hosts, the public, the governments, and the funders. A lot more research and analysis by collaborative, professional teams is needed to make this project come true. I decided to sprint the research and design process to quickly let people understand the general idea as well as potential service and features Spacing could provide.
For the next steps:
Collecting the data: Data is key to this project. The community characteristics, surrounding business, real-time foot traffic data, staying visitor data, compatibility with the existing street forms, and safety, etc. are all very import factors to consider. (Some of them have already been collected and analyzed by different orgs.) Potentially, these data would explain each other and collectively improve the project.
Communication with people and the governments: Currently, most parklets need to be open to public. Some of them are allowed for commercial uses at certain hours. Lack of direct profit from investment in parklets is the main reason why parklets are not widely built. However, considering the business and social benefits parklets have brought to people, there is definitely room and possibility for expanding the scale and influence of parklets. Under good management, parklets could bring a lot of direct benefits to people.
Supervision and regulations: The best supervision is from “eyes on the street”. Additionally, regulation and complaint systems are important. And you bet, the Spacing platform might need to hire a lot of good lawyers as it grows.
It’s more than just parklets: As one of the original “urban hacking” activities (low budget, small-scaled placemaking activities that aim to make the city more vibrant), parklet is more than just a fast-made on-street park. It is a sustainable transition towards a high-tech and high-life future.
Thank you for reviewing this project :)
NOTES
Parklet definition - Wikipedia.
Park(ing) Day is an annual event in that encourages community members, students, and designers to transform on-street parking spaces into temporary parklets. - American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).